3-Year-Old Dies After His Mother Leaves Him Home Alone for 20 Hours

We lost another innocent child to a parent's thoughtless neglect. Three-year-old Austin Davis died after his mom left him home alone for 20 hours. Megan McKeon left on a Wednesday to work at a grocery store, but she didn't head straight home afterward. By the time she got home, she found him lying on his back, eyes open but showing no signs of life. McKeon was arrested and charged with child abuse resulting in death, which is a felony. The thing is this was completely avoidable.

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McKeon is living like a single mother because Austin's dad, Tyler Davis, is in prison for failing to register as a sex offender. (He was arrested for offering teenage girls money for sex.) So if she has to go to work and can't afford childcare, what else could she do? Maybe she didn't have family nearby to help ...?

But nope, she doesn't have that excuse. McKeon's mother says she would have been happy to watch Austin while Megan worked. Charity O'Konski says, "All she had to do was call me. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts to what happened, it’s her fault no matter what happened. She is accountable for that baby."

Not only did McKeon leave her son home alone for work, after work she went and stayed the night at her boyfriend's house. She left her son with food, juice, and a movie -- and thought everything would be just fine. And this was something like the 20th time she'd done this. Twenty other incidents of neglect she'd gotten away with, but this one time it ended in tragedy. It was inevitable.

A doctor who tried to revive Austin believes he may have ingested some medication or drugs. Investigators say McKeon's cabin was a total disaster, with half-eaten food and human waste everywhere.

It's astounding that McKeon would think a 3-year-old could be all right by himself for 20 hours. Anyone who has ever known a 3-year-old knows how unrealistic that is -- you can't leave a 3-year-old alone for five minutes! Some people are just delusional, though. Some people will justify things that defy logic. It's terrible that this time, someone's delusion ended in the death of a child.